Pulp bales are bound by means of known devices of the aforementioned type, examples of such devices being disclosed in Swedish Patent Nos. 380,496; 509,532; and 509,534. As described in these specifications, the free end of the wire is fed forwards through the cutting and twisting means and is guided around the bale by guide means. When the wire end reaches the cutting and twisting means for the second time, feeding is stopped and the wire end is gripped and held. The guide means releases the wire and the feed means is reversed in order to tighten the wire around the bale, whereafter the wire is cut and the ends twisted to form a knot. The reverse fed wire is used in the next binding operation. Known devices have a high noise level and suffer frequent breakdowns due to kinks and tangles in the wire.
It is one object of the present invention to improve the reliability and availability of such apparatus, as well as to reduce the noise level, to reduce the risk of kinks and tangles in the wire, to reduce the mechanical stresses on the device, and to permit a high feed rate of the wire.